The series was set in the Middle Ages because Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis wanted to avoid comparisons with Fawlty Towers (1975), which they regarded as the most successful British sitcom of its time.
Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis developed the idea of a historical sitcom while working on Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979).
Michael Grade, who became head of BBC One in 1984, found the series too expensive and not funny; he nearly cancelled it (during the same period he also tried to cancel Doctor Who (1963) and halted production of The Tripods (1984)). In the end, he was persuaded to make new episodes on the condition that it be a lower-budget studio sitcom. For this reason, the second season of Blackadder could only be broadcast in 1986.
The Foretelling (1983) aired in Sweden on 22 February 1986. Born to Be King (1983) was scheduled to air a week later (1 March), but it was postponed by a week because most of that day's television airtime was devoted to news of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, who had been killed the night before.